The Last Week

We made it! Even though the kids left (most of them) before 1 yesterday, I was working until 6:30 grading tests and assignments. It felt so good to finish it up though. And I even have a bit of a plan for what I will do after the break. Now I can enjoy the holiday!

We leave tomorrow morning for the airport. That means today will be a day of wrapping presents and packing up. I am looking forward to it. I also transferred the final chunk of money to the states that will pay off my student loans. That will be a good feeling! I am in quite the minority to be debt-free after four months of work. Not bad.

Wednesday was the Christmas dance for our school and two other schools combined. We went to a nightclub in downtown Rotterdam. This is really a nice solution because they set up, clean up, and offer security. Good thing we brought earplugs though. We left just before 11 and the place was packed. They claimed to be able to host 2000 and we had about 1400. The ventilation was terrible and lines for the coats took over an hour. The first and second year students were supposed to go at 11 so that the older kids could start drinking. In the crunch to leave, some students started passing out from the heat and noise while packed into a line. The street was jammed up with parents waiting to pick up their kids, so the police came. I guess the club was expecting 500 people. Not sure how that happened, but they were horribly equipped and we are lucky nothing bad happened. The party lasted until after 2 in the morning.

Anyway, Thursday we had Christmas drinks at school. Yes, you can drink alcohol in schools here. They did this instead of offering us a Christmas package with gifts in it. It was nice, and we even got to take a couple of nice bottles of wine home with us.

Last night we went into the city with our friends Clifton and Karmen for a couple hours of pool. It was fun, and afterwards we ended up talking until almost 1 in the morning and our place. I guess we are preparing for the time change...